TRENTON — City Councilwoman Kathy McBride has taken to the airwaves to ask Gov. Chris Christie to provide more law enforcement help for the city as residents suffer through a crime wave.

In a TV ad first broadcast late last week and running until the end of this week, McBride stands amid tombstones and asks if Christie will allow Trenton to become a graveyard.

“If you cannot protect the seven square miles of Trenton, how can you be trusted with our nation’s security?” McBride asks Christie in the commercial, referencing the governor’s potential presidential aspirations for 2016.

McBride has for months asked Christie to deputize out-of-state law enforcement officers to patrol Trenton on a volunteer basis, as he did for the Jersey Shore following Hurricane Sandy. The deputies could surge in and out of Trenton at the governor’s discretion, McBride said.

McBride said she has reached out to Christie’s office but says she has not received a response.

“And so when he didn’t respond to me, first as a citizen and second as an elected official, I have concerns, because I have respect for him in his capacity,” she said in an interview.

That led to the commercial. McBride founded Mothers Against Violence after her son was murdered in 1993. She was elected to an at-large council in 2010. In the interview, she discussed the crime that has engulfed the city in 2013, its deadliest year on record.

“My concern is, we need some assistance and we need to be looking at a long-term strategy, and not a Band-Aid fix for the situation,” McBride said.

Acting Attorney General John Hoffman responded to the surge in homicides by ordering the State Police into the city Aug. 15. The troopers are in the capital on their fourth deployment in 18 months, in higher numbers than ever before.

McBride welcomed the State Police help, but said officials have announced the troopers will probably only stay through the end of September.

“Any method of assistance is welcome, but if you only come for two weeks or three weeks, when you’re not here the problem is still here,” she said.

Christie’s office did not respond to requests for comment yesterday. In spite of the State Police deployment, Christie has said he will not work with Mayor Tony Mack due to the mayor’s indictment on federal corruption charges. Other legislators have made similar statements. McBride takes a larger view and disagrees.

“The mayor is one person,” McBride said. “You’re going to penalize an entire community, and entire municipality, for one man?”

“I don’t think it’s fair for the residents, I don’t think it’s the right approach,” she said.

In addition to the commercial, McBride started a petition on MoveOn.org that she is asking citizens to sign.

The ads, running mostly on cable channels, were paid for by donations to McBride’s re-election campaign fund, she said. The election will be held next year at the same time as the mayoral race. According to McBride’s most recent campaign finance report, filed last week for the period ending July 15, she had $675 in the account. She did not say how much the ad cost to shoot and run on TV.

McBride has been mentioned as a possible candidate in the already-crowded mayoral field, but said the ads are not the start of a mayoral run.

“Right now, it’s the beginning of trying to have some dialogue with the governor,” she said.

In the ad, McBride said the Trenton Police Department is “overwhelmed.” In the interview, she emphasized that more law enforcement officers are needed to bring down crime in the city.

“Don’t get me wrong here: locking up everyone in the city of Trenton is not the answer,” she said. “Being proactive is the answer.”